March 26, 2005

Missing the Point, Again

West Virginia is shooting threes against Louisville today the way Villanova shot twos when they beat Georgetown back in 1985. But all the CBS talking heads are missing the point, again. West Virginia is up 40-27 at the half primarily because Louiville has only scored 27 points at the half. Rick Pitino better be spending halftime adjusting his offense. If WVU hits threes in the second half the way they did in the first half, then they are on to St. Louis regardless of what Louisville does -- you cannot effectively defend a team if they can throw it in from 24 feet or, worse, bank it in from beyond the arc as the shot clock is winding down. On the other hand, if WVU comes back towards the mean a little on there threes, as I expect, Louisville will still have to score more than 27 points in the second half if they are going to win. Unless Louisville starts forcing it inside where they should be dominant, getting some fouls and shooting better than 38%, they are going to lose.

Oh, and for CBS's play-by-play announcer, I wrote yesterday that this game was a tossup, so it's not true that nobody gave WVU a chance. Jeez, it's as though Brent Musberger is back telling us who's going to win at the opening tip. After all, "it's only a matter of time."

DOWNDATE: Well, WVU did come back to earth a little and Louisville mixed it up inside and outside to push it to OT. I thought with Garcia fouled out and Dean sitting out with cramps that WVU would take it, but they didn't. Good game.

Posted by Charles Austin at March 26, 2005 05:47 PM
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